About 6 years ago, my other half who has a good deal more money than me and her own successful business, turned up at a Merc dealership to collect her brand new E 220 CDi. She came out of work mid day and full of excitement bowled in to the showroom. The sales person she had been dealing with was not there but she been given another name.
After 20 minutes standing around, she managed to get the attention of some one who summoned the named person. " I'm with another customer at present- could you come back later "
If she hadn't all ready seen to the transfer of the money in full, they would still be sitting there with the car. Sorry, but I am of the belief that a lot of dealerships are now reaping what they have sown, brought about earlier than they might have expected by the present recession.
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My experience of my Daihatsu dealer has been such a stark contrast to the 'prestige' brand experience.
I go in, they know my name from over a year ago, the sales process happens in whatever order I want - want to talk money first, they will, test drive first, no probs, poke around the one in the showroom, take as long as you like or take a borhcure and pop back if you want to know more.
Deals? Sure, happy to be pushed down, not a scowl to be seen.
I honestly dont recognise this attitude I keep hearing about at other dealers - its alien to me, but then it would bother me if I was treated in such a terrible way.
As for the monkeys comment - I worked with a sales team at a large dealer and not one of them was evolved much past the primate stage. It is quite likely that these bad salespeople you come across are somewhat worse behind the scenes, usually with a suitably degrading nickname.
Of course there are some good ones, but they are rare.
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Jason - you seem to be fixated on German marques. Might that be part of the problem?
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Bought our ex demp MX5 last June from Murray Mazda in Edinburgh. We just turned up unannounced about a half hour before closing and were treated very well. They went to great lengths to dig the car out of the many on the forecourt and gave us both an accompanied drive.
Did the deal by e mail that week and picked up the car the following weekend.
We were greeted by the sales man, given coffee, inspected the car which was meant to be half full of petrol, it wasn't so he happily jumped in it and went to fill it up. Talked through all the docs and on our way.
We were buying for cash with no trade in and never once felt under pressure, not even to buy the extra Suraguard and warranties.
I have not used any afterservice as we are 90m away so cannot comment on that.
Reason for visiting at last minute was due to visiting car at Peebles dealer and unable to agree on sensible price, although to their great credit they just photocopied our licence and gave us the MX5 to drive around in all morning unaccompanied so again a pretty positive experience from a Mazda dealer.
Again I sent e mails to various Mazda dealers via their used/approved site and got no response. I asked one dealer in Hexham why no response he told me that most the leads from e mail aren't very strong or spam so tend to prefer potential customers to phone. Maybe he should address his policy.
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Last Saturday I went to our local Audi dealer to look over the A3. I spoke with a decent salesman who went over certain details, probed how serious we were, made some suggestions and promised a phone call back on Monday.
We ended up going back in Monday before he rang us. He took us out on a test drive before we had even sat down and we didn't even show licenses.
We then started price negotiations. I had spent the weekend doing my research and looking at alternatives (Seat Leon FR, Golf, Lexus IS, 9-3 TTid, Alfa 159). I started him at the autobytel etc price that I had from the Internet. With the extras he came within £70 of the best price, chucked in a boot liner and some other small bits and did a the Audi PCP at 5% APR.
Three years ago I bought a year old Saab 9-3 diesel with 7k miles up. The car has done 70k miles and been spot on, except for the dealers. Two main dealers didn't want to sell me a car and then the ones who did get the sale couldn't prepare it (someones dinner on/in the passenger seat) or do a service properly. I was saved going mad by a local independent who is brilliant. I would have kept the car and paid the final PCP payment on the strength of the local independent, but the car is worth less that the GFV so I voluntarily terminated the agreement last week to save the last 4 months of payments.
I tend to find salesmen don't take me seriously first time around. Maybe I am not as sharp a dresser as my salary might suggest or I look a little young for my years. Just over ten years ago a Renault salesman lost a brand new Clio sale when they considered me and my Mrs timewasters.
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I tend to find salesmen don't take me seriously first time around. Maybe I am not as sharp a dresser as my salary might suggest or I look a little young for my years <<
This hits the nail on the head for many salesmen in any business, not just car sales. When they have stiff targets, they try to guess who looks capable of buying and focus their attention on them. Go past any mobile phone shop (why we need 6 or 7 on any high street is beyond me...) and you can see the gelled-up fringed chaps and chappesses trying to stalk those who they think can get a credit contract.
In my experience most of the guys I know who have plenty of wedge tend to dress like tramp-o-Claus when they aren't at work (myself included). They too have mentioned feeling pre-judged when trying to look at cars. even though some of them could write cheques for the stock on the forecourt (even more so now that cars are worth shiny buttons!)
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Maybe I am not as sharp a dresser as my salary might suggest or I look a little young for my years
An acquaintance of mine in my twenties had a wealthy father who would buy him a new car every couple of years. This happened to him so often that the first thing he would do in his spanking new car on taking delivery was to drive it to the dealer who'd not taken him seriously, find the salesman who'd refused to assist him, and show him he'd just lost a sale. Attitudes varied between indifference, and blank shock.
I worked in retail long enough to know never to judge a book by its cover. The guy who gave me my biggest commission earning ever looked like he'd slept in a hedge. Turns out he was actually a Lord and when I went to his house to return the wallet that had fallen out of his pocket on the test drive, it was a massive country manor complete with gravel drive and butler (yes, really!) He was an absolute joy to deal with too.
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the first thing he would do in his spanking new car on taking delivery was to drive it to the dealer who'd not taken him seriously, find the salesman who'd refused to assist him, and show him he'd just lost a sale. Attitudes varied between indifference, and blank shock <<
Sounds typical behaviour for a spoilt brat to me ;-)
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been to 4 dealers lately, 1 vw, 1 toyota in aberdeen and the same in dundee.
all sales men were helpful,polite and keen to give test drives and quote for my business. jag.
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I walked round my local Renault dealership looking at the new Laguna's
I was wearing my usual casual dress (Jeans - T-Shirt) I wasnt even acknowledged. and i spent 20 min on the forecourt looking inside new laguna's
A 6 (or so) months ago while my Astra was in my Local Vauxhall Dealer for a service (again usual casual dress) again I may as well have not existed while i was looking round the Vectra's, and the same went when I stood at the reception desk to book my car in ( a very
unsintrested recoptionist dealt with my service booking)
2 Months ago I went to my local and very trusted indiependant car dealer and Garage, to have a look around at what they had in as soon as i walked onto the forcort, the owner new who i was came up to me , and said "any car you want to look at, just let me know and ill get the keys for you" I had a look around and had a very intreting chat with the head mechanic about the car in question - the only thing that stops me buying at the moment is I cannot afford one, but if I could of that day i would have walked off having just purchased a 3 months old top of the range Vectra that looked awesome! and was imacualte in everway.
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I've related my poor experience of a previously loved SEAT dealer in another thread- suffice to say I won't be back there. Recent dealings with Lexus, Toyota and a couple of Volvo have been pretty good. Volvo in particular seem to hit that balance between helping you and leaving you to it- partly why we're spending a large sum with them.
Cheers,
Alex.
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